Two toddlers die in river; mother charged
The disturbing details:
"S.C. mother killed children, sheriff says" by Associated Press | August 18, 2010
ORANGEBURG, S.C. — Investigators were not convinced when a woman said her two young sons drowned after her car plunged into a river. She ultimately confessed to killing the toddlers, they say — not by dumping them in the water but by suffocating them earlier with her own hands.
Broke, jobless, and berated by her mother for her failings, Shaquan Duley killed the boys, ages 2 years and 18 months, then strapped them into their car seats before rolling the vehicle into the North Edisto River in a desperate cover-up attempt, authorities said yesterday....
Monday’s tragic scene of a car being pulled out of the water with children’s bodies inside was eerily reminiscent of the 1994 case of another South Carolina mother, Susan Smith, who is serving life in prison for killing her young sons by rolling her car into a lake....
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"Lawyer says mother accused of killing sons is remorseful" by Meg Kinnard, Associated Press | August 19, 2010
ORANGEBURG, S.C. — The mother accused of suffocating her two young sons and trying to cover it up by staging an accident says she is remorseful and has been speaking with the family minister, her attorney said yesterday.
Yeah, finding oneself in a jail cell tends to do that.
“She’s tearful, as anybody would be under these circumstances,’’ defense lawyer Carl B. Grant said after a brief hearing. “She’s been very sad, very remorseful about all of this stuff, all of the allegations.’’
What allegations? She CONFESSED, right?
29-year-old Shaquan Duley, who is unemployed, told authorities she smothered the boys after a fight with her own mother, who badgered her about her failures as a parent and inability to provide for her family financially....
Not a candidate for mother of the year.
And think unemployment isn't fatal?
We sure have enough money for wars, Wall Street, and Israel.
Duley lived with her sons, a 5-year-old daughter, and her mother in a rented home in Orangeburg. Out of work and estranged from the children’s father, she relied on her mother for support.
That is SOME SUPPORT she gave!
But after the two argued Sunday night, Orange County Sheriff Larry Williams said, Duley left her daughter at the house and drove 2-year-old Devean C. Duley and 18-month-old Ja’van T. Duley to a motel several miles away.
Late that night, in a corner room tucked at the back of the rundown, one-story complex, Duley suffocated the boys with her hands, Williams said.I simply CAN NOT IMAGINE the INDESCRIBABLE TERROR those POOR BOYS FELT as their lives we choked away.
She then strapped them back into their car seats, drove to a boat ramp some 10 miles away, and rolled the car into the water, investigators said.
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